Christian Living

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I was born in Chicago, during the blizzard of 79'. Many joke "It was a typical Jen thing to do". As if I had chosen to come into the world at one of the most inconvenient times. My mother said that it literally took her hours to get to the hospital. I guess the point that i'm trying to make is that i've always been a typically difficult person.

I was a dramatic child and an even worse teenager. Church was never a priority in my family. Sure, we attended, but that's all. As I grew older, church became even less important to my family. Mainly because of my parents busy schedules and my huge lack of desire to go. Eventually, we stopped going at all.

During my teen years rebellion came on with a vengeance. I decided that I no longer believed in God. I spent the weekends with my friends in a drunken stooper. Now when I think back, there were so many things that could have happened to me and didn't. There is no other explanation for that other than I was under God's protection. The God that I had given the cold shoulder to. The God that I no longer believed in. He was there with me the whole time.

A couple years went by and I had matured quite a bit. One of my good friends got involved in a church and encouraged me to go, and I did. Unfortunately I wasn't comfortable at that particular church, but I can say that I refreshed my faith.

Eventually I met the man that is now my husband. When we were getting to know one another he told me that he was not a Christian. It bothered me terribly, but I knew that I could convey my faith to him. We started going to church and he was quite inspired. In fact, he shed tears on his first visit. We never got totally involved, but enjoyed going.

We decided to move out of state. Once we moved we stopped going to church. Over a period of time we discussed visiting a few churches here. We were lucky enough to adore the first church that we visited.

We are now both youth leaders at that church. We have a 5 year old son who knows the importance of church. We're highly involved and he is even on the council.

My journey wasn't quite as long as it was for some others, but it was long enough.

My faith is strong and my life has changed. God has always been here with me, even when I didn't want him to be. There aren't words to describe how grateful I am to know him.

So yes, i've been difficult. I've been stubborn and i've been blind. It took nearly 25 years for the blizzard to clear so that I could see what was there the whole time.

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